How To Play The Game.

thirty three - michael

Three weeks later, Michael woke up at around 10 in the morning and went straight into the living room, where he assumed Calum and Ashton would be.

He hadn't seen or heard from Lily since they'd fought, even though Michael had called her over one hundred times. He counted.

Michael knew that he'd messed up big time, and he knew that Lily also knew that, but there was nothing that either of them could do at this point. It was over, they both knew, and that sad part was that Michael knew this was going to happen since the very beginning.

As Michael walked into the living room he saw Calum and Ashton on the couch together, sitting very close to each other, but the second they saw him Calum jumped to the other side of the couch.

"Oh, Sleeping Beauty's awake." Ashton looked up at Michael, coughing awkwardly.

"Don't call me that." Michael sighed, sitting down in between Calum and Ashton.

"How are you?" Calum asked. He reached forward and grabbed his own laptop off of the coffee table in front of them, looking everywhere in the room except at Ashton.

"Fine, I guess." Michael shrugged. "Lily still hasn't called me back."

"It's been, like, 3 weeks, dude." Ashton said, giving Michael a small smile. "I don't think she's going to call back."

"She'll call back, she has to." Michael said, mostly to reassure himself. He knew that Lily wasn't going to call, she hated him, but Michael liked to tell himself that she'd come around. "God, I'm such an idiot."

"It's gonna be okay, Michael, don't worry." Ashton said brightly, glancing to the side, his eyes lingering on Calum. "Maybe this is just a sign that you and Lily weren't meant to be."

"But we were meant to be." Michael insisted.

"Not exactly - " Calum began to say and Ashton cut him off, reaching around Michael and slapping Calum on the back of the head.

"I don't know, Michael." Ashton said in a much nicer tone than Calum had. "You and Lily were complete opposites, you didn't share any of the same interests and you fought all the time. I mean, think about it, she literally forced you to ask her out on your first date."

"So you're trying to tell me that I didn't really like her?" Michael raised an eyebrow. Ashton didn't know what was going on in Michael's head, he didn't know how Michael really felt about Lily.

"No, I believe that you like her, I just don't think you were soulmates, you know?" Ashton shrugged." You're just upset about all of this because you wasted eight months with her - "

"I didn't waste any time with her! None of it was a waste!" Michael yelled, making Ashton flinch and sink back into the couch. He had good intentions, he was just trying to make Michael feel better, but he was doing a bad job of it.

"Don't yell at him." Calum said sternly, glaring at Michael as Ashton folded his arms across his chest and tried to avoid eye contact with both of them. Michael turned and stared at Calum, who had been so focused on his laptop a second ago and was now glaring at Michael like he'd just kicked a puppy.

"Ugh, oh my God, I forgot that you two have something going on." Michael pretended to gag and got up from the couch, pushing Calum over so he was now sitting in the middle, and then sat down on the other side.

"There's nothing going on." Ashton mumbled before sitting up straighter, brushing some hair out of his face. "Anyway, Michael, I didn't mean to say that you just wasted your time with Lily. I know you liked her, I was just trying to make you feel better. It's not like you were going to spend the rest of your life with her, right? This was just for a while."